Following the expensive marketing barrage we’ve experienced over the past few weeks, tonight’s EEK3 showcase is promising an altogether more “grimey” event.
A movement of sorts that’s sprung up over the last year, Haunted PS1 is a loose community of indie devs and hobbyists creating horror games rooted in the aesthetics of the 90s. Following in the footsteps of contemporary developers like Kitty Horrorshow and Paratopic developers Arbitrary Metric, Haunted PS1 previously showed off a slew of low-poly scares with the Haunted PS1 Demo Disk. Like that free “disk”, tonight’s showcase is another neat initiative to show off the community’s latest spooks. There are over 40 games lined up for today’s showcase - games that are “released or releasing this year” - and if that were all, it’d be fine. An interesting stream, for sure, but just another atop the many we’ve already seen during this never-ending summer of E3.
In a wild twist, though, Haunted PS1 contributors Marcus Horn and Bryce Bucher have gone and put together their own virtual E3 convention floor. Painted in the same 4:3 low-poly stylings as the games on show, you’ll be able to take to the show floor after catching the games on stream. I’m told you won’t find games there, only horrors and secrets tucked behind the booths. I’ve never been to E3, but I somehow can’t imagine HPS1’s grim take on the LA Convention Center comes even close to the soul-draining effect of going to the real thing. The EEK3 convention floor should open over on Haunted PS1’s Itch page when showcase kicks off at around 9pm tonight. You can catch the stream over on the Haunted PS1 YouTube channel. Whatever you call it, hit our E3 2020 tag for more from this summer’s blast of gaming announcements, trailers, and miscellaneous marketing. Check out the PC games at the PlayStation 5 show, everything at the PC Gaming Show, and all the trailers from the Xbox showcase, for starters.
